Sound-root 'puck' (mischief, the puck) + small-suffix
He can be hired for a coin and a riddle, and the work is always done — never quite in the way the hirer expected.
Best for A wandering trickster imp of the crossroads
AI naming archive
Imp Name Generator
Create original imp names with meaning, etymology, and an easy pronunciation guide.
Curated examples
Imp name ideas
Latin 'vesper' (evening) + small-being suffix
He tends the last coals of the night and is said to keep the fire from going out only in houses where the bread has been left out for him.
Best for A household hearth-imp of the late fire
Sound-root 'tiv' (spark, snap) + feminine keeper suffix
She lives in the wick of her witch's reading-candle and can be coaxed out to read a closed letter held near the flame.
Best for A witch's familiar imp of the candle
Sound-root 'kazz' (itch, the small annoyance) + small-suffix
He hides pins in the wrong shoes, and the parish records of the town he frequents show a measurable rise in limping on market days.
Best for An infernal minor imp of the pin
Sound-root 'lapp' (fold, the small hidden thing) + trickster ending
She lives in the fold of the door-mat and is the reason a thing left on the threshold is sometimes not there in the morning.
Best for A boggart imp of the threshold
Sound-root 'snik' (snick, the small laugh) + small-suffix
He steals the punchline of any joke told over his head, and the joke is never quite as funny after he has been there.
Best for A trickster imp of the stolen line
English 'ember' + feminine keeper suffix
She can be carried in a closed iron box for a year and a day without going out, and her witch is the only one who can open the box.
Best for A familiar imp of the hearth-coal
Sound-root 'tazz' (tangle, snarl) + trickster ending
He tangles the thread of any weaver who fails to leave a small knot for him at the end of the day's work.
Best for A boggart imp of the knotted thread
Old French 'quillet' (a quibble, a small clever argument) + small-suffix
He is said to whisper a small useful quibble into the ear of any advocate who leaves a draft of the brief near a low flame.
Best for A familiar imp of the lawyer's candle
Sound-root 'pip' (small seed, small sound) + small-suffix
He lives in the rising of the dough and is said to leave a small round loaf of his own on the board of any house that keeps him well.
Best for A household hearth-imp of the bread
Latin 'vexillum' (sign) + small-suffix (no proper-name use)
He leaves small unexplained marks on door-frames, and the local wise woman reads them as a kind of running tally.
Best for An infernal minor imp of the small sign
Sound-root 'sket' (skitter, dart) + trickster ending
She is only ever seen in motion at the edge of vision, and the children of her district have named a running-game after her.
Best for A trickster imp of the corner of the eye
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Imp name collections
Imp Names: Hearth & Familiar
VesperkinTivikaEmbrica
Imp Names: Trickster & Boggle
PuckrelLappetSkettle
Behind the names
About Imp names
Imp names should sound like a laugh in the next room — short, quick, vowel-bright syllables, light consonants (p, t, v, k, l), and a flicker of mischief underneath. This generator draws on the European folk tradition of the imp as a minor mischievous spirit (kin to the puck, the boggart, the familiar of the witch, the small devil of the parish church), without copying any attested proper name. Use the subtypes to move between witch's familiars, wandering tricksters, infernal minor devils, household hearth-imps, and bogie-shapeshifters of the threshold. Every name is original and includes a meaning rooted in mischief, ember, spark, prank, threshold, or the small cleverness of the lower spirit, a readable pronunciation, and a story-ready role.
Questions answered
Naming Customs
Imp names favor short quick syllables (one-to-three sounds), bright open vowels (i, ee, a, o), and light consonants (p, t, v, k, l, s) that suggest a snap of the fingers, a hiss, a small laugh. Meanings often reference ember, spark, prank, threshold, itch, secret, hearth, or the small prankster of the door. Names are rarely long — a long name slows a quick get-away, and imps are creatures of the fast exit. Gender marking is loose and often deliberately muddled: '-kin', '-pin', or hard single-syllable endings read as masculine-coded puck-types; '-a', '-i', or '-ie' endings read as feminine-coded hearth-keepers and familiars; trickster and infernal minor forms are often neutral-coded, as befits a spirit that finds the male/female distinction faintly funny. An imp may carry a 'gift-name' given by the witch or householder she serves, which is usually the only one she will answer to in public.
Historical Context
The imp enters the record through the European folk tradition of the minor mischievous spirit — a small, often invisible being of the household, the workshop, the crossroads, and the witch's familiar. The word is attested in Old English ('impa', a shoot, a graft) and comes to mean a small grafted being, a child of something larger, a minor scion — hence 'imp' as a small devil or a child of the infernal in medieval and early modern usage. The witch-trial records of the 16th and 17th centuries describe familiars with names given by the accused; the broader folklore knows the puck, the boggart, the boggle, the brownie-when-crossed. Across all of these the imp is small, clever, attached to a person or a place, and dangerous in proportion to the smallness of the mischief rather than the size — a missing pin, a soured milk, a half-remembered dream. Naming customs reflect this: an imp's name is often a household word made into a label, and the imp's true name (if she has one) is held to be the key to her dismissal.
Cultural Lore
In most worldbuilding contexts, an imp's name is spoken with a small smile, not a shout, because the imp is held to be a creature of the half-heard and the whispered invitation. A common taboo involves thanking an imp for her work — folk tradition holds that a thanked imp will leave, and so the careful householder praises her by effect ('the bread rose well') rather than by gratitude. Cultures that deal with imps associate their names with ember-orange, candle-yellow, hearth-red, and the dim blue of a low fire at midnight. Familiar variants take names with a witch's-pet sound; trickster variants take names with a snap-and-giggle feel; infernal minor variants take names with a small-devil edge; household variants take soft hearth-side names; boggart variants take dissonant, half-ugly names that shift on repetition. A respectful treatment avoids reducing the imp to a cartoon 'evil sidekick' — in the source tradition she is a small being of the threshold and the hearth, useful and dangerous in equal measure, and her mischief is the small print of any bargain she keeps.
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